Space

Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) has now successfully placed a record of placing 20 satellites in orbit that were being carried by its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in a 26-minute flight from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The 320-tonne PSLV C-34 contained 17 small satellites from Canada, Indonesia, Germany and the US but the main satellite was a 727-kg Cartosat, which is a earth observation satellite called which can take high-resolution images, and two other satellites created by Indian universities, Sathyabhamasat and Swayam.
In fact, there were 13 US satellites among all on the space flight, including a satellite made by Terra Bella, a Google-owned company, that is also a earth imaging.
One of them was the 110 kg Google satellite called SkySat Gen-2 is capable of taking very high resolution images and high definition video.

Launching 20 satellites in a single mission is like “allowing birds to fly in space”, the ISRO chairman.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted “20 satellites in a go! @isro continues to break new barriers.”

This was the first time that ISRO has placed more than 10 satellites with a single rocket. In 2008, ISRO placed in orbit 10 satellites.
For now, Russia holds the world record for launching maximum number of satellites at one latch. Its Dnepr rocket launched 37 satellites in 2014.
ISRO has launched 74 satellites till now for foreign vendors from about 20 countries, earning about $ 100 million

NASA’s Juno spacecraft is inching closer towards Jupiter and is set to enter its orbit on July 4. The spacecraft will unveil the mystery of what lies underneath the thick atmosphere of the mammoth planet. On Monday night, Juno will complete its 1.8 billion miles journey. If all goes as planned it will fall into Jupiter’s embrace. The main objective of this $1.1 Billion mission is to solve the mysteries about the origins of our solar system, of Earth and of Life.

Juno spacecraft is named after Roman goddess and wife of Jupiter. It is equipped with 9 instruments. During a 20 month study, Juno will measure microwaves radiating from the planet and map its humongous magnetic field. As it explores the planet, it will have to face brutal radiation. Juno will have to fight for its own life. Project scientist Steve Levin of JPL, said: “It’s the biggest and baddest planet in the solar system and it’s got the biggest and baddest radiation and the biggest and baddest magnetic field”.

The deepest mystery lies at the heart of the planet. Researchers aren’t sure if it has a hard core or whether it is filled with gas. Spacecraft is expected to end its mission by disintegrating into the planet to avoid possible damage of Jupiter’s ocean bearing moon, Europa.

People around the world will be able to witness the mission online. You can do this by downloading a software called Eyes on the Solar System from the NASA website.

Tejas, India’s first home-grown Light Combat Aircraft was inducted in the Indian Air force On Friday. After a long wait of three decades the country’s military aviation achieved a major Milestone. While designing the aircraft many aspects were kept in focus such as carrying weapons, manoeuvrability, light weight, and many other things. It has a weight of 6,560 Kg, which is a lightest multi role aircraft of its class. It has a max take-off weight of 13,500 Kg.

The performance factors shows that it can achieve a max speed of Mach 1.8 i.e. 2205 Km/h for FOC version and Mach 1.6 i.e. 2000 Km/h for IOC version. The aircraft carries a single mounted 23 mm twin-barrel Gryazev-Shipunov (GSh-23) cannon with 220 rounds of ammunition. It has S-8 rocket pods for Bofors 135 mm rocket. The aircraft is equipped to carry air-to-air, air-to-surface and anti-ship missiles.

The Indian Air force will induct 6 aircraft this year and 8 aircraft next year. Tejas is set to replace Mig-21s, infamously known as ‘flying coffins’. Group Captain Madhav Ragnachari was the first to fly the aircraft after its induction into IAF. “I felt like being on top of the world when flying the Tejas fighter. It’s an honour and a privilege to pilot the inaugural flight of the LCA soon after its induction,” Ragnachari told reporters.

LCA_Tejas

5 things you should know about Tejas:

1) Tejas is equipped with a quadruplex digital fly-by-wire flight control system to enhance manoeuvrability.

2) Tejas is set to replace Mig-21s and has been designed only for light combat.

3) Countries like Sri Lanka and Egypt have shown interest in buying the aircraft.